Skiing at Sunrise

Sunrise Ski Resort

This weekend I went up to the cabin with my mom to go skiing before the season ends. While it was certainly nice to go to Pinetop and my mom and I always have a good time, the skiing conditions were not good!! We got up there on Friday evening and just had some dinner and played cards and hung out. Saturday we got up, made breakfast and drove up to the resort. We decided on only ski 1/2 a day and thank goodness we did. There was not a lot of snow AT ALL! Where there was snow on the mountain, it was icey. Since I didn't ski last year it always takes me a few runs to get in the groove. I was very tenative because of the icey conditions. It certainly wasn't my favorite ski trip but glad we atleast tried. Lesson learned....March is too late in the season!
It was nice to be in the cooler mountain air though and just relax since I have a lot on my plate these days. We took two long walks with the dogs which they of course loved. Once I move I will really miss the cabin and Pinetop. I love it up there and have so many great memories of family trips up there. I hope this trip was not my last!
Thanks for going with me mom, I love you and love our mother-daughter bonding trips up North!

Cyclone Lodge where we park....usually this is ALL snow and you can ski up to the door, not this time!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from my four legged leprechauns!

Palmetto State here I come!!

Well, it is official, I am moving to South Carolina! I can hardly believe it myself! I am an Arizona native and have Arizona love that runs deep! Yes, I am the one that in college would see a cactus on TV and cry! I love the Arizona beauty, the desert to me is breathtaking. I love that you can drive 2 or 4 hours and have snow and skiing. I love that 8 months of the year the weather is beautiful and you can spend time outside year around. I just truly love Arizona. So why am I moving to South Carolina....well bottom line, FAMILY! When my sister moved to Charleston 3 years ago, it was beyond hard. My sister and I are close and I definitely lost a friend. Plus she took my pride and joy, my nephew!! Since then I have also have a neice and not having children of my own, I pride myself on being the BEST AUNT! It melts my heart when they tell me they love me and that I am their favorite friend to play with! Now that I am moving, I will not have to miss the baseball games and ballet recitals. Aside from that, coming from the person who quite honestly hates change, I think I need change in my life. A little excitement and new experiences will do me some good.

I have great family and friends but obviously my sister and her family are not here. My parents are out there atleast 1/2 the year. (That is what grandchildren will do to you :) ) My friends are mostly married with families and busy lives of their own. I therefore spend a lot of time by myself. I am definitely strong and can stand on my own two feet and do my own thing so being alone isn't all bad. I have three dogs I love, a house I love, neighbors who are great, a gym I enjoy and volunteer with two organizations that leave me fulfilled! It will all be very hard to leave but I am comforted by the fact that good friends remain and with good friends, distance can not change the friendships. (Many of my close friends live in other states anyway so this certainly won't change those!)

I am trying to embrace this change with open arms and with full steam ahead and lots of prayers! I trust that God has a plan for my life and this is just part of it!

Run for Ryan House

As most of you know, Jesse and I do pet therapy visits at Ryan House. I could write all day about how wonderful Ryan House is and how much I get out of going there. I often think Jesse and I get more out of the visits then the children. I leave after every visit feeling so blessed and happy that I can make some of these children smile!

Saturday was the Run for Ryan House at DC Ranch. There was a 1 mile fun run, 5k, 10k and 1/2 marathon. I signed up for the 5k. My friend Krista drove up from Tucson to do the 10k. She is training for her first 1/2 marathon and this was her first 10k. A great training run for her too. She did great! Fun to hang out with her again and we both laughed, until a few weeks ago it had been 18 years since we have seen each other and now we got to hang out twice in one month!

After the race Krista and I went and enjoyed some breakfast at one of my favorite places, the Herb Box. I swear the oatmeal I had was the best Oatmeal I think I have ever eaten! Yummy!

Always fun to get some excercise in first thing in the morning expecially when it is benefitting a great cause!

Howler the Phoenix Coyotes Hockey Team mascot was out cheering everyone on.

Ryan Cotter who is "THE RYAN" of Ryan House crossing the finish line. He did the 5k too!
Ryan and I!

Krista and I after the race!

You can see a video that was on the news about Ryan House below....

http://www.azfamily.com/video/featured-videos/RyanHouse-88963692.html